Good morning! The weekend edition is 627 words, a 3-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• NOLA tanker crash

• Hero Doberman

• Cranberry tidbits

First-time reader? Sign up here!

Today’s Big Story

FAA Grounds Flights Nationwide

• The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon after a communications failure disrupted air traffic control centers across the country. The emergency order halted departures at U.S. airports and contributed to more than 13,400 flight delays and cancellations. Officials had not announced when normal operations would resume as of Friday night.

• The failure affected the communications systems used by regional air traffic control centers to coordinate aircraft across U.S. airspace. Planes already in the air were allowed to land while departing flights remained grounded. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the problem, and Homeland Security officials reported no indication of a deliberate attack.

• The shutdown was only the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks. The previous incident occurred in January 2023 when a computer system failure halted domestic departures for nearly two hours. The latest disruption comes as the FAA works to modernize its aging air traffic control infrastructure. Congress approved $12.5 billion for the effort last year, and federal officials requested another $30.1 billion Friday.

Saturday’s Quick Hits

• A tanker struck a docked river cruise boat Friday in New Orleans, sending passengers into the Mississippi River. Tugboat operators, nearby workers and police helped rescue at least 180 passengers and crew. Mayor Helena Moreno said 32 people were taken to hospitals and none had critical injuries. (More)

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it deported 483,200 people in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That was up 9% from the previous year and the highest total in the agency’s 23-year history. ICE also reported a record number of arrests. The arrest and deportation totals measure different steps in the enforcement process. (More)

• Ukraine launched nearly 1,200 drones at Russia, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. The strikes came as U.S. envoys pursued talks that could bring European countries into negotiations over the war. The European Union’s top diplomat said Europe should insist on a ceasefire before entering those talks. (More)

• Southeast Asian leaders are expected to address online scam networks when they meet in Manila alongside counterparts from the U.S. and China. The networks operate across borders and use workers who may have been trafficked into scam compounds. That makes the problem both a fraud investigation and a challenge for authorities trying to free people forced to carry it out. (More)

• Microsoft began restoring access to Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services Friday after a global outage disrupted businesses and government agencies. The company said email backlogs were shrinking but warned that some users could still have trouble accessing services or receive messages late. (More)

• Researchers found a clue to how Alzheimer’s may damage the brain early on. In mice with an Alzheimer’s-like condition, the blood-brain barrier took up less of a protein that helps protect connections between brain cells. Mice engineered to make more of the protein showed fewer signs of disease. (More)

Weekly Dose of Positive

• Two teenage brothers used a kayak and paddleboard to help a mother and her son and their dogs escape a flooded home in Palm Bay, Florida. (More)

• An infant in Dubai went from about 110 seizures a day to several weeks without one after receiving an experimental epilepsy drug. (More)

• Strangers raised $76,000 for a full-time caregiver in Colorado after a video of her delivering pizza went viral. (More)

• A family’s Doberman refused to leave a six-month-old’s side before his mother took him to the hospital and doctors found a dangerously fast heart rhythm. (More)

Extra Credit

Why airplane windows have rounded corners.

Chile’s Atacama Desert bursts into bloom.

Why cranberries pop when you cook them.

...and how cranberries became a Thanksgiving staple.